A Lifelong Passion for Animal Welfare: Working with SPCA International and the Patriot Pets Animal Reunification Program for Service Members

Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers, welcome to another episode of the story of my pet podcast. I'm your host, julie Marty Pearson, as always, and I'm very excited to bring you a brand new not one, but two episodes. This week I had an incredible interview with Lori Califf, who works with SPCA International, and we talked about so much important information and several of their programs that I've split it into two parts to make sure that you listen to all of this important information. I'm very excited to be partnering with SPCA International with these podcast episodes and I really hope you enjoy listening to our conversation and will follow and support their very important international programs helping animals around the globe. Before we get started, thank you for listening. I appreciate all of you. If you want to help support the podcast, please click, follow and rate and review wherever you are listening to the podcast, on whichever platform or app, and all of that will help more people see the podcast and listen to all of this important information so we can help more animals in need. Here is part one of my interview with Lori Califf from SPCA International. My friends and fellow animal lovers, I'm excited for the conversation I'm about to have. I'm really excited to have a guest from SPCA International and organizations I've followed for a year and just love all the work they do, so I'm very proud to have them on the podcast and I want to introduce to you Lori Califf. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

Oh, it's such an honor, so excited to be able to talk to you. Thank you for having me on.

So you are coming to us from where?

I reside in Victoria, british Columbia, so on the west coast of Canada. Our headquarters, though, for SPCA International is located in New York City, so hence the term international. We have. Many of us lives abroad, and we all work together remotely, so we're pretty lucky, in portions, to be able to do that. That's great.

So have you always been an animal lover? Is it something you grew up with? Do you want the long story or the short story, or the medium. We'll go medium. Okay, we'll go medium.

It's a funny story. This is when I'm asked this question. It always brings me back to when I like to think. I was two years old and my mother brought me to a department store called the Hudson Bay in Canada and she said you get to pick out a bath toy. And so I picked out this pink whale and I've tried to find it since, but I can't. And the whale was missing a fin. And she said don't take that one, it's broken. And I said, no, it's not broken, it's perfect. And so, when tears, she bought that for me, and I grew up in the 70s I just revealed my age in the days where doors were left open and neighborhoods were so safe and friendly and my mother would often catch me crawling across the street to go visit the neighbor's dog and she always knew that she would find me somewhere sitting with a dog or a cat. So it started at a very young age.

That's great, I understand. I was always that child. We would go to someone's house and all the girls wanted to play with the baby. I'm like, where are your pets?

That's right. I just saw something on Instagram actually. That said, when you go to a party, don't you feel like the best person when the dog picks you to sit next to you?

Exactly, you've been working in animal rescue, animal welfare for a long time, so how did that as your profession, working in that field, how did that evolve?

Yes, I think I often get that, asked that question how did you get into animal welfare as a profession? And I think back in the day I never thought that what you are truly passionate about, what you live, breathe, eat and what you care about most, can actually work for and advocate for animals and the people who help animals. I've always volunteered at the local animal shelters. When I was young Again, this was like back in the day when there was no age limit. I come from a big family of animal lovers as well, so I do remember the day that I got involved. I think I was about 11 or 12 and my mother had read something in the local newspaper that the local SBCA was in dire need of volunteers because they got in a large number of cats, and so she picked me up from school and we went and fed all the cats it's laying the cages and my father came after work and he would walk the dogs that nobody wanted to walk, and so I got grandfathered in that way because the local SBCA the director at the time, always had a vision of starting an international chapter, and many years later he did, and by this time I graduated university. I didn't take any studies that have to do with animal welfare. I don't even think they were available at the time. I graduated in sociology and psychology which does help and then went on a trip once to Florida and read about the situation where people were adopting dogs and cats that they didn't want in the Everglades, and it was just traumatic to hear. So I reached out to the founder at the time and he put me in touch with his assistant and I told him about the story and she asked me to write for them, and so I did and I volunteered for about a year writing grants and just forming relationships with partners all over the world, and eventually they invited me into attend staff meetings and long be cool that got hired a year later. So I've been with SBC International as a staff since 2012.

Wow, so you've been with them for a long time Over a decade, I'm trying to remember. Yeah, amazing. And as all of the people I've met on the last year and a half in creating this podcast and getting more involved myself in the animal rescue, beyond just following and supporting on social media. I hear the story a lot where people either as a teenager, got involved as a volunteer or fostering, or their family was involved, or you were volunteering and it grew into working with an organization, which I think is so important, because you're not just coming in and seeing it as a job, you're coming in seeing it as your passion, like you said. Really, you have to have the passion for it in this field because it's so difficult and can be so overwhelming that you have to have a taste of it before you walk into helping an organization grow.

I think you just hit the nail on the head that most people and rightfully so get involved because they love animals. But I think the part about it that you really have to understand is that you have to love people too, and you're dealing with a lot of people who are on the front line day after day. We are a strictly program-based organization. We don't have our own shelter like an SPCA would. So, just aside, spca stands for Society for Prevention and Affirilty to Animals, and so we're not affiliated with any other SPCA, but we would help them if they needed to through various programs. But really you have to understand people. You have to understand, for, especially in my position because we work locally, you have to understand different cultures and what the setbacks are, and you can't go into any situation imposing what you know and what you learned and what your beliefs are on that culture or especially that government who has different regulations and different ideologies about animals. So there's always many challenges to face and many ways to navigate how you can help animals. It's not just a black and white sort of occupation.

Absolutely, and I think that's what's important for people to understand is we realize that not everyone can volunteer physically or not everyone can foster, but there are so many ways you can impact animals and help organizations do the work they're doing. Because it is complex especially I know, even having volunteered and worked at my local shelter just the complexity of it's a county shelter, it's run by the county, it has to follow certain rules. So I can't even imagine the complexities for you guys when you're dealing with different countries and dealing with political structures and laws and regulations. And even just the transportation of animals across borders can be so difficult, let alone all of the what happens behind the scenes to make it happen.

That's right. And first I just wanna say I applaud you for volunteering at your local shelter, because I know that's not easy. I know what it's like to walk into shelters and see the eyes of these animals, that all of them my mother animals are speaking to.

They're saying yes. And it's hard and there's a very high burnout rate.

So it's really important to look after yourself and not just constantly looking after the animals and the people. But you've just shown something really important about one of our programs about transportation, one of our programs. It's called Petriot Tets. It's formerly known as Operation Baghdad Pups Worldwide, and that's a program that we began in 2008 when a soldier who was on deployment to Baghdad, iraq, contacted us and a dog wandered onto their face and one of the soldiers says I can't leave this dog behind. He has bumped up the morale and the rest of the platoon. She has essentially saved my life and mental health. And so there's one thing about us where there's a will, there's a way. My mother always taught me that, and I was in part of the organization at the time, but we brought that dog home and since then we've brought home over 1300 dogs and cats and one doggy for US service members who are on active deployment or who are veterans working as contractors overseas in court-torn zones. The red tape to be able to bring a dog or a cat home to the United States and that's where we bring them to is very complex. Like you said, we often get this question why can't you just put the dog on an airplane with you and there are so many regulations and red tape to follow and we really strictly adhere to the exporting and importing governing laws of both countries. And it can take up to six months, especially with the new CDC regulations for dogs that are deemed coming from high-risk rabies countries. So there's about 113 of them.

Wow, I can't even imagine because I know from just learning from people in rescue that being in the shelter just the regulations for the medical aspect, because when dogs are confined or held in places together disease spreads so fast. So I can imagine how difficult, how regulated it is. We're protecting that animal but you're protecting the only other animals that are in transit or near them, or protecting the animals in the country that they're coming to. I'm sure that must be a very difficult part of the process.

Yeah, it is, and it's not just an animal issue, but we look at it as a public health issue as well, and that's a very helpful approach when we're working with governments who their main way of controlling and overpopulation of animals is to sadly go on. They call them or they put them in municipal shelters and they don't stand a chance, they're city pounds or whatnot. Our other program which actually started our entire organization back in 2006, is called the Shelter Support Program and one of our biggest missions is to be able to chaff, neuter, vaccinate and release. So we want to maintain the health of the public and, of course, maintain the health of the current population of animals so that both can live simultaneously and harmoniously. So this program one of the aspects in that we send out grants, that's, a grant giving program and we help. I think we're over 300 partners now. I think this year it'll probably go up about 100. And so we sent funding and veterinary supplies to be able to help with spain neuter programs and vaccination programs. It's World Ravies Day at the end of September, and so we're running a big campaign distributing over $30,000 of homes, funding and resources for World Ravies Day so that we can people from all over the countries, establish organizations and shelters, will be able to do more vaccines.

That's amazing because vaccines are crucial and even in the US we've seen such an issue with all the animals who were adopted during COVID and didn't get vaccinated, and that's a lot of the health issues that are now faced by shelters, because now they're in there, they haven't been vaccinated, they're getting sick and it's spreading. So I can imagine in another country where they don't even have access to getting vaccines, or spain neuter, that it's critical for them in terms of their overwhelming pet population, especially if they're on the streets and it's easy for them to spread disease.

Very easy. Yeah, sadly, we've seen the worst of the worst, but we've also seen the best of the best, and I think that there is. There has been a paradigm shift over the last decade on the approach to managing overpopulation of animals and keeping them healthy and safe, and I think one of the biggest contributors to that is social media, and younger populations are seeing this and seeing what can happen and the cruelty. And then, of course, if we're going back to how some governments around the world manage their population by killing young children are seeing this on the streets and the effect that it has on them as well is pretty profound. So I think there really is a nice shift happening. Of course, social media also brings up the worst, and we see a lot of atrocities around the world, but there… it's definitely more good than bad. That's what I can tell you.

I can't imagine what animal rescue was like 10 years ago when you didn't have the power of social media to spread awareness, to educate, to fundraise even. I see so many local, smaller rescues fundraise quickly for a dog that needs out of a shelter that they would have never had access to, and I think it also inspires people to act and to get involved.

Absolutely. It enables people to be in voice. You said something, you touched upon something before, about how a lot of people might get involved and whether it's a lot of obviously non-profit organizations. They rely strictly, solely on kind donors and with the introduction of social media and fundraising, even if you can't donate, you can share stories, you can share even the atrocities and you can be a voice and people who have followers also understand and it leads to such a wonderful ripple effect that gains more and more support. So anytime somebody asks, I would say this anytime somebody asks me how can I help? They're already helping because they're a voice and they're sharing and they want to know more about situations.

Yeah, I think that's critical and it's one of the reasons I started the podcast. But I've this is motivated to keep me going is just sharing a story. You never know who might see it. Even if it's not a like or a comment, People see stuff and it makes them stop and maybe realize, wow, I need to know more about this, I want to be involved. But simply reposting, resharing is. It's a huge thing because it keeps the momentum of whatever that story is or the need is moving forward. Yes, Absolutely.

And you probably know this too, that there's a fine line with what you share. If you're constantly, always sharing the horrible stories, you're probably going to lose a lot of followers, because there's compassion fatigue and it's just hard to watch that. All the time we really try to highlight a lot of our successes and the reunions, especially dogs and cats coming home to their veterans and active soldiers and contractors, even embassy workers. So it's important to remind people that it's not all bad, that there is a lot of good and there are a lot of incredible people and organizations around the US, around Canada and around the rest of the world who are doing such great things.

Absolutely Speaking of that with Patriot Pets, is there a story maybe you want to share about a reunion or one of the trips you were on bringing the pets home that you think would really inspire people to learn more about the program?

Oh, yes, this is a great question. Now I have to choose which one. I don't think. When a soldier service member is on deployment and they contact us, they need to go through a vetting process to make sure that they're not just being reactive and they're going to take this dog and not be able to look after it when they get home. We really form strong relationships with these individuals and they become part of our family and for many years I always say that once you come into the program, you're part of our family forever. You got to deal with that, and so they keep in touch and they tell us how these dogs or cats have changed their lives. There's one particular dog, there's many, but there's one particular dog and I won't mention the soldier's name because I want to respect his privacy but it was during a pretty rough political time in the Middle East and he had a dog that he fell in love with and he later confided to me that he was on suicide ideation and he was thinking about taking his own life while on his deployment. You're so far away from your family. You don't have the luxuries, even a bed or the ability to sometimes wake up when you want to wake up or have a nice sleep, because you're always on watch 24 hours a day and this dog saved his life. And the dog is still alive. The soldier's still alive and we keep in touch and he always reminds me we're checking with each other periodically how integrating back into civilization was such a key part for him as well when he returned to the United States, and he has since left the military. But this dog helped him reintegrate back into civilian life. And I think that's one of the key aspects about this program is that we don't always realize that we're not just saving not we, but everybody doesn't always realize that we're not just saving the dog or the cat, but we're saving people's lives as well.

That's really powerful. But I would say so true. I know personally. I've been through different struggles in my life mental health wise, physical health wise and I've always had pets as my crutch not that they did anything special other than just letting me pet them or sleep with me or whatever it may be. So I can imagine someone going through something so difficult being in the armed forces, being in such high alert, dealing with difficult mental health issues, having the dog there with him at the time and that bond they had really developed. That's just so powerful and it's amazing that he was able to keep that and grow with it and help them with reintegrating. But I also think it's an important story. We don't really realize day to day what our armed forces go through, especially when they're overseas. They're away from their families. They're in a highly difficult situation. Like you said, they have nothing, they don't have a home, they don't have their own bed, their own space to feel safe in, necessarily, and having an animal in that situation could just be profoundly helpful.

It reminds them of Shuling for sure and obviously when they come into the program they're animal lovers or they become animal lovers very quickly and they see such horrible things on deployment and they see a lot of cruelty to animals which is really tough on them. And I think it's also important to note that the service members are risking their position in the military a lot of the time because sadly it's still against the military's policy to be able to rescue a dog or a cat on deployment. There's an order called General Order One which prohibits the feeding or lifting after of a dog or a cat while on deployment. So a lot of the time we're navigating through not just the hoops and the red tape to be able to get the animal into our care and back home but to keep the animal safe and hidden at some occasions before we can do that. But I will say there also has been a shift in the most recent years where commanders are seeing how much it means to these service members while on deployment and how much it boosts their morale and gives them energy and they are really turning away and saying yes, let's do this, and they let them have them and then they know that we have a contract that we will bring them into our care. So it's not forever that they're going to be with animal on deployment.

And I think that's so important. Just like everything, we learn through experience and I'm sure they're seeing more often than not how helpful the animals can be. My dad was a World War II veteran so obviously I wasn't around when he was in the service, but having him as my dad always gave me a much better appreciation of what they go through and what they see and the long-term impacts like for him he had long-term impacts health-wise from his time in the service. We have to realize that it isn't just, like you said, about saving the animal. It is about the mental and oftentimes physical health of the servicemen or women and when they get back, that's that support that they get.

that helps them even more in the long-term and that's really important, yeah absolutely A lot of the dogs that we rescued from our program have become certified service animals. One particular case and I don't mean to only shed some sad stories here, but there was a soldier who was in Syria and there was a big explosion and he lost three of his limbs and his eyesight. He had rescued this dog beforehand and we had already brought the dog into our care. It's hard to describe and story without getting a little choked up, but we helped him get the dog registered. We brought the dog into Special X training for him so that he can be a seeing eye dog and a therapy dog. Yeah, and it's still going quite well today.

I think service animals are just a hero in their own way. Heroes come in all different shapes, sizes and breeds and they don't even have to do anything but sit with someone to be a hero, to be helpful. My husband as a child actually helped raise puppies for guide dogs for the blind. I actually got to go with him to the school where they train them and then the people come in and get matched with their dog and they get to be trained to get to know each other. It was just such an incredible place to be to really see what's going on in the power of what those dogs do for their person, whatever type of therapy dog or guide dog it might be. I can imagine in these scenarios, when they actually come back from having experienced the war with them and now are back home and are helping them through different transitions, that it's that much more important and much more deep of a connection that they've made. Yeah, it's their combat buddies.

They know they've lived and breathed whatever they've been through together. I think we know, and probably everybody listening to this podcast right now knows, that every dog is a therapy dog. They're just not given that label.

Yes, they don't deserve dog good. They give us without anything, any kind of training or need they just know. I can imagine with Patriot Pet they develop that connection even more deeply when they're really saving each other and then they're able to come home and be together. Wasn't that a great conversation? Now, remember, that's just part one of a two-part interview with Lori talking about her work with SVCA International and all of their incredible programs. The next episode of the podcast, which will be out in two days, will be part two of my conversation, where you'll hear about the Apollo 8 program, as well as others, and what those programs are doing to help animals in need, both here in the US and abroad. Please don't forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and whatever podcast platform or app you are listening to, and help spread the news so that more people listen and are educated about the important programs, rescues and organizations working to help animals in need all over the globe. Until next time, my friends.